You Voted ‘NO’ but the SA Government Don’t Care

South Australians are due to have an election this weekend, no, not the state election, and no, not all South Australians will be allowed to vote, just some, based entirely on their ancestry. If you don’t fit the prescribed ethnicity, you can’t vote, well, maybe you can’t vote – I’ll get to that soon.

Those people I just showed you were some of the candidates for the six regions in the upcoming 2024 South Australian First Nations Voice Election! You may remember in last year’s Indigenous Voice referendum, South Australia got the second lowest number of Yes votes in the nation at around 35%. But the Government don’t care about your opinions and are pushing ahead with this state-based version instead.

Of course, the Guardian and others are reporting that there is dirty misinformation being spread online, like saying that South Australians don’t want this, which is a complete lie apparently. “Some social media users appeared to be confusing the South Australian voice and the upcoming election with last year’s federal voice,” the factcheckers said. The attorney general said it was a “very different proposition”. So never fear South Australians! What you voted for last year, has nothing to do with what a very small percentage of you will be allowed to vote for this weekend.

According to the First Nations Voice Election website, “Get ready to vote!’, remembering it’s on 16 March 2024. I’m sure you’re excited about voting, but there’s a few rules to remember. To vote in the Voice elections, you must be a First Nations person. According to the statistics, 2.47% of South Australians identify as Indigenous Australians, meaning that the overwhelming majority of tax-paying South Australians will have no say in this. It should also be noted that “Voting in the First Nations Voice election is not compulsory and there are no fines or penalties for not voting”. That’s odd, because according to the Australian Electoral Commission, voting is compulsory. “It shall be the duty of every elector to vote at each election”. That’s weird, isn’t it? Not only will 97% of the South Australian population not be allowed to vote, the remaining 3% don’t even have to vote! Let’s just break the law! Look, I’m not a lawyer. What do I know?

According to the Electoral Commission of South Australia, “Voting in South Australia is compulsory if you are an Australian citizen, and 18 years of age or older. Your vote is important and all votes are equal.” Unless of course you don’t fit the prescribed ethnicity, and then, not only is your vote not equal, you can’t even vote! Ah, Australia 2024.

The Electoral Commission also have a list of rules, you can download them here. These are the official rules. It’s strange, when I search for “indigenous”, there’s not a single result. When I search for “aboriginal”, there’s not a single result. But if you search for “first nations”, 38 results! They’ve erased the terms Indigenous and Aboriginal in favour of first nations.

This I found interesting, in Section 5, Rule 13 – Questions to be put to person claiming to vote at a polling place. Ask the person such questions as are necessary to establish their identity. Fair enough. They have to ask you “Have you voted before in this election?”; and, ask the person if they are a First Nations person. That’s it. There is no other verification to confirm whether or not you identify as First Nations. In my reckoning, anybody could vote as long as they’re on the State electoral roll, and as long as they’re willing to answer Yes to that final question. Oh, this isn’t dodgy at all, is it?

Remembering of the 2.47% of people who identify as Indigenous (noting that children make up some proportion of that number and can’t legally vote), voting in this election is not compulsory and there will be no fines or penalties for not voting. I’m really interested, how many First Nations South Australians do you think will actually vote in this? Will this so-called advisory body be formed from less than 1% of the population in South Australia who bother to get up and vote? Doesn’t that sound a bit scary that such a small minority of people will wield such a disproportionate amount of power?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn